The document discusses three "ugly ducklings" or overlooked concepts that can power growth: branding, change management, and fundamentals. It argues that while branding, change management, and fundamentals may not lead directly to exponential growth, they can help organizations by strengthening relationships with customers, managing change effectively to avoid problems, and focusing on good business practices. The document provides examples and advice for how startups can apply these concepts to support sustainable growth.

1. The 3 Ugly Ducklings of Growth
Sofia Quintero
Head of Growth @Geckoboard

2. All your key metrics in one place

3. Industry Nomad
@sofiaqt

5. Specialised
knowledge from
unrelated
industries can
be very useful
in less
organised
environments.

6. The 3 Ugly Ducklings of Growth
Ugly duckling: A useful idea, concept or
discipline that’s often overlooked in ‘non-native’
industries despite its power.

7. “We don’t do corporate stuff”
“Traditional marketing is over”
“Data-driven or die”
“Product is everything”

8. Branding
Industry:
Agency
world

10. “A brand is the set of expectations,
memories, stories and relationships
that, taken together, account for a
consumer’s decision to choose one
product or service over another.”
Seth Godin

11. Some stuff can’t
be measured.
That’s ok.

12. Do things you can’t measure and do those
things because they make you feel proud
about the business you’re building.

13. Baby Steps: Startup Branding
The tone you use when
you reply to emails.
How helpful you’re with your
network and other startups. The balance between
shipping stuff fast and
launching crap.
Making customer support
something that everybody
can be involved with.
Caring about design.
The way your team talks about
your business when they are
getting drunk in a meet up.
Creating some space for fun
and building stuff that’s not
related to work.

14. Micro conversions
=
Details matter

15. “Qualitative
excellence can’t
be hacked”
Marc Ecko

16. Branding on its own, may
not take you to exponential
growth, but it will help you.

17. Change
Management
Illustration by Alice Eris Urchin
Industry:
Management
Consul9ng

18. “The world hates change, yet it is the
only thing that has brought progress”
Charles Kettering

19. Growth = Constant change

20. Changing the way you hire people
Changing the strategy based on learnings
Changing the product
Changing the messaging
Pivoting

21. Growth = Change

22. Badly managed
Change = Danger

23. Become a distraction
Affect productivity
Nurture politics
Diminish focus
Affect employee retention
Injure culture

24. How do you avoid those negative effects?
Understanding change

25. It has stages
It’s an emotional process
It’s all about communication

26. Time
Morale
and
produc9vity
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (70’s)

27. Product
problems
People
problems

28. Change management may not help
you achieve exponential growth but it
will help you, especially with
people problems.

29. Let’s not reinvent the wheel when it comes to
managing change in startups
Switch:
How to
Change
Things When
Change Is
Hard
Changemaking:
Tactics and
resources for
managing
organizational
change

30. Plain Good
Business
Illustration by Alice Eris Urchin
Industry:
Skateboarding

31. Next round
of funding
Sustainable
business

32. You have everything
you need to start today.

33. Fundamentals are good
Kind people in customer service departments.
Getting to know our customers.
Keeping the promises we make.
Building a culture of respect.
Win-win partnerships.

34. What drives Geckoboard’s growth?

35. Talented engineers and
product managers
Founders who are OK with
saying: “I don’t know”
A constant pursuit
of focus
A strong conviction
about doing things that
we feel proud of

36. “In pursuit of quantitative gymnastics,
be careful not to lose sight of the
qualitative purpose, your qualitative
meaning, the reason you’re doing
‘this’ in the first place”
Marc Ecko

37. @Geckoboard